Commenting on today’s Lloyds GMP equalisation ruling regarding the treatment of historical transfer values, Matt Davis Head of GMP Equalisation at Hymans Robertson said:

“This ruling addresses the thorny issue of pension schemes picking up the tab for GMP equalisation for past transfer values. This should be good news for some of those who took a transfer value as they may now be in line for a top up payment. However, the effort involved in revisiting transfers paid out by pension schemes across the industry over the last 30 years will be a very significant challenge for schemes, and in many cases historical data will not be available.

“For sponsors of pension schemes who report accounting figures under IAS19 the ruling is likely to trigger a need to assess extra accounting liabilities and the impact on P&L. For those due to report as at 31 December 2020 the timing of the ruling doesn’t leave much time to analyse this.”